St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-03-19
TERRIFIED INDIANS
The Ravages Of the Cannibal Ele-
plant of Mundla.

Most persons who have had occasion
to visit the prettily wooded station of
Nagpur, the seat of the administration
of the Central Provinces of India, and
who have been inside the little English
Museum there, must have observed q
trophy in the shape of the skull and
tusks of on elephant occupying a prom
inent place among the other curiosities.
These, and the awful reputation for
blood thirstiress which he left behind
him, are all that remain to us of the
once notorious ''man-eating" elephant
of Mundla. Hardly anybody who has
ever resided in India can have failed 10
hear of the enormities committed by
this extraordinary animal, whose his
tory would read like monstrous fable.
were it not corroborated in every par
ticular by the official records.
About the year 1851, when the estate
of the Nawab of Ellichpur escheated
to the Nizam's government, this ele-
plant escaped, and made its way into
the jungies of Chindwara, in the Cen
trail Provinces. The rajah of Nagpur
hearing of it, offered reward for its
capture, and sent out two detachments
of sowars (troopS after it. Hunted
about the Chindwara District, it de-
scended the CHATS and passing close to
the city of Nagpur, turned northward,
and took to the hills at the north of the
Hatta Pergannah of the Balaghat Dis
trict. For several years it roamed the
Dhansna Hills, and then went away
north of Bhimlat to the Chaisan ghat
range, where it remained without doing
much damage to man or property until
the beginning of the year 1871, when
it signalized itself by killing, without
any sort of provocation, twenty-one
persons in the Mundla District, catch
ing them with it's trunk and pounding
them to death. 1t then passed ON once
more to the Balaghat District; and
the history of its atrocities while
there, the measures taken for its de-
.struction, and the result of those meas
ures, are detailed and perfectly clear.
The following account is extracted
from the official report, the substance
of which is here given, with only few
omissions and some slight alteration, in
the language of the report.
On the evening of the 3Oth of Octo-
Der, 1871, a report reached the Deputy
Commissioner at his headquarters at
Balaghat that the elephant had killed
and partially devoured Gond (abori-
gine) near Behir, in the northeast cor
ner of the district. Owing to press Of
work, the Deputy Commissioner was
unable to take any action until the 1st
of November, when he moved off
by the most direct route towards Be-
hir, with the object of meeting there
with the district superintendent of po-
lice, with whom it had been previously
arranged to hunt the animal. On the
Sd of November he got to a place near
Behir, where he came across the super
intendent Of the Mundla District, who
had followed up the elephant. Here
they were informed that the creature
had been seen on the night of the 9th
of October by Gond, who was watch
ing his fields with his father on
macham, OF rude wooden platform
erected for that purpose. The former
had jumped off the platform, and,
shouting to alarm his father, had bolted
to the nearest village for safety. The
latter, however, was not so fortunate,
and his body, smashed almost to pieces,
was discovered in field on the follow
ing morning. Again, on the night of
the 29th Of October, q Gond and his
wife were sleeping on machansin